Star Tours: The Adventures Continue (Disney's Hollywood Studios)
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue (sometimes labeled as Star Tours 3-D or simply just Star Tours) is a 3-D motion simulator attraction based on the Star Wars film series and is the prequel to its predecessor, Star Tours. Star Tours: The Adventures Continue replaced the original Star Tours attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. The Hollywood Studios version opened May 23, 2011, with the Disneyland version opening a few weeks later on June 3 while Tokyo Disneyland's version opened on May 7, 2013. It will open at Disneyland Paris in 2017. This updated version features 3-D technology, multiple destinations and is set in the Star Wars universe between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, whereas the original attraction took place some time shortly after Return of the Jedi. Opening Crawl In tradition with most Star Wars productions, the attraction was presented with an opening crawl during the inaugural ceremony at Disney's Hollywood Studios on May 20th, 2011. It reads as follows: Episode III.V STAR TOURS It has been a long time since the end of the Clone Wars, and the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader continues to tighten his grip on the Empire as the galaxy moves closer to the brink of a great civil war. A new intergalactic spaceline, Star Tours, seeks to preserve unrestricted intergalactic travel in this age of tyranny. Freedom fighter Captain Raymus Antilles has assigned two droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, to help launch the spaceline, fueling Imperial suspicion that Star Tours is part of the Rebel Alliance. Star Tours is about to open its first intergalactic space terminal in the Earth System as rumors of a fearsome weapon of mass destruction dash all hope for peace and freedom in the galaxy... Development Star Tours was always intended to receive occasional updates, though various factors would serve to delay the project. The initial development proper on a Star Tours II began in 1997 when George Lucas invited Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald to Skywalker Ranch and showed him the Pod Race sequence of the in-development Episode I: The Phantom Menace, suggesting it would be perfect material for an updated Star Tours attraction. Imagineers developed an attraction concept with a pod race as its centerpiece, but held off on it to wait and see what the other prequels could offer. With a branching storyline in mind, Fitzgerald went to Fox Studios Australia in 2003 during the filming of Revenge of the Sith to pitch the multi-branching storyline to George, quickly getting his approval to move forward. Work proper finally began in 2007 with Fitzgerald and other Imagineers regularly visiting Skywalker Ranch to show them their progress. podrace on Tatooine.]] At the inaugural D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, on September 12, 2009, Jay Rasulo and Darth Vader announced that Disneyland's Star Tours attraction would be closing in October 2010 to make way for an updated version, which opened in 2011. Tatooine was the first of the new destinations revealed, showing a sample of the Pod Racing sequence. Premise *Blast off on a thrilling tour of the Star Wars universe aboard a StarSpeeder 1000. Voyage to amazing alien worlds — like Tatooine, Naboo or Hoth — and come face to face with the likes of Yoda, Princess Leia or even Darth Vader. *Featuring state-of-the-art technology—including a flight simulator, digital 3D video, Audio-Animatronics characters and “in cockpit” special effects and music—Star Tours: The Adventure Continues realistically immerses you in the Star Wars mythology for an unforgettable intergalactic adventure. *Hurry along the forest moon of Endor—home to rustic Ewok cottages and a towering AT-AT—and make your way through a sleek Rebel bunker to a bustling Star Tours spaceport. Inside, behold R2-D2 and C-3PO tinkering away on a Starspeeder 1000—your cosmic transportation vehicle—amid a throng of projection screens, glowing scanners and blinking droids. *Weave your way up a ramp past customs and baggage screening before picking up a pair of 3D flight glasses and continuing to your departure gate. Following instructions from an overhead monitor, board your interstellar space vehicle for a journey through the darkest reaches of the solar system. *As you prepare for lift-off, a series of mishaps unwittingly causes your starship to launch and C-3PO to take control. Suddenly, your space cruiser is intercepted by Empire forces. Fearing capture, C-3PO pilots your ship on an unpredictable flight that will rocket you to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and back! *Hold on tight as you navigate jagged desert rocks in a dusty pod race on Tatooine. Maneuver around menacing AT-ATs during a whirlwind battle on the icy planet of Hoth. Hyperspace to the watery planet of Naboo and avoid the clutches of a giant fish or retreat inside the dreaded Death Star to escape Darth Vader before doing battle with Boba Fett. *Will your starspeeder elude capture and safely transport you—and the rebel spy—safely back to the Alliance base? May the Force be with you. Attraction Since the attraction takes place in an earlier timeframe than its predecessor, this Star Tours travel agency utilizes AC-series pilot droids and, therefore, RX-series pilot droid Captain Rex is not the ship's pilot (instead appearing in the queue as a defective prototype droid). Additionally, Endor is not currently a destination. Through a series of mistakes, though, the AC-series pilot droid does not appear as the ship's pilot either, as the aerophobic C-3PO finds himself at the helm of the StarSpeeder 1000. Characters that make appearances in the attraction include C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, Boba Fett, Yoda, Leia Organa, Admiral Ackbar, Chewbacca, Han Solo, Sebulba, Jar Jar Binks, Mon Mothma and new characters such as AC-38, Aly San San and Imperial skytroopers. The exteriors of the Star Tours attractions are different in their respective parks. The attraction in Florida is inspired by an Ewok village on the forest moon of Endor whereas the California and Japan versions are modeled after a Tomorrowland-esque space port. Backstory According to the opening crawl that preceded the attraction's inaugural opening, after the Dark Times began, Captain Antilles had dispatched C-3PO and R2-D2, who were placed in the custody of Antilles by order of Bail Organa near the end of Revenge of the Sith, to assist in the inauguration of the spaceline. The seemingly close relationship between the Rebel Alliance and the Star Tours agency caused the Galactic Empire to believe that both entities were in a partnership and has since monitored the agency's actions over the years. Queue Similar to the functionality of the previous attraction, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue places guests in the role of space tourists en route to a predetermined destination. The queue is designed to resemble a spaceport terminal: posters advertise trips to different planets and a large LCD screen informs riders of the benefits of booking flights with Star Tours. The screen displays information in spoken basic language and Aurebesh. The queue is populated with Audio-Animatronic characters, including C-3PO, R2-D2 and two Mon Calamari officers, that interact with one another and to the guests. Entering the cargo bay, RX-24 from the original attraction can be found, who, in accordance with the timeline, has not been used yet and is therefore being sent back to a factory as defective. He occasionally has power surges and delivers lines from the original attraction. Two G2 droids interact with guests as they conduct their tasks. The more outspoken droid processing the passengers' luggage on a scanning system reveals the luggages' contents to the guests waiting in the queue. Many references, gags and in-jokes are made via the contents of the luggage. Guests then retrieve their 3-D "flight glasses" and are directed by a Star Tours crew member to one of several concourses where they wait to board. Pre-show Television monitors show C-3PO, who has been assigned to maintenance on the StarSpeeder that the guests are about to board, inadvertently getting trapped in the cockpit. Following this, Aly San San presents an instructional video (reminiscent of the original) to the guests on how to fasten their seat belts and where to place their belongings followed by the Disney Parks daily safety spiel in English and Spanish. Once the doors to the Starspeeder 1000 open, guests enter the ride simulator. After the doors close, C-3PO complains to R2-D2 about the misunderstanding, but is ignored when the StarSpeeder begins to take flight. Ride The attraction currently features 54 different ride experiences, including several different planets from the Star Wars universe such as Coruscant and Tatooine. With The Adventures Continue serving as a prequel to the original Star Tours rather than a sequel, guests board StarSpeeder 1000 spacecraft simulators, forerunners to the StarSpeeder 3000 simulators found in the original attraction. The ride experience has a branching narrative with the system having control over its random sequencing, rather than the participants. This gives Star Tours the advantage of being both highly repeatable and constantly surprising. Even though guests can experience 54 different journeys, the main priority (delivering the Rebel Spy to safety) is accomplished no matter what the sequence is. The Rebel spy's identity is chosen by the cast member operating the ride vehicle from among the guests on the attraction and their picture is presented during the ride. When referring to the spy, characters will alter their dialogue depending on the gender of the person chosen as the spy (him, her or them). Sometimes, no guest is chosen as the Rebel spy and a generic photo is used. There are eleven random segments of the film (two introductions, three "detours", three hologram transmissions and three finales). The Starspeeder 1000 takes off, although C-3PO protests that he is not the captain. As the ship is about to leave the Star Tours terminal, one of two scenes will occur: *Darth Vader, Imperial Stormtroopers and skytroopers arrive to arrest the Rebel Spy aboard the speeder. Vader uses a Force-grip to keep the speeder from escaping. The Starspeeder fires its lasers at the Sith Lord, who deflects them with his lightsaber, allowing the shuttle to make a rapid exit backwards out of the hangar, with TIE Fighters chasing after it. The StarSpeeder then makes the jump to lightspeed, at C3PO's insistence. **Strting from 'Season Of The Force', in some of the rides, one of the four Skytroopers, with Vader, may be Boba Fett? *An Imperial probe droid attaches to the windshield and detects the presence of the Rebel Spy on board the Starspeeder. At the same moment, Han Solo, facing detention by the Empire, opens fire on a platoon of Stormtroopers and races up the boarding ramp of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Falcon Millennium Falcon]. The Falcon lifts off and launches out of the hangar with the StarSpeeder in hot pursuit. After a few maneuvers, the Falcon jumps away and the StarSpeeder shoots down a couple of TIE Fighters, takes a few shots at a Star Destroyer and then jumps to lightspeed despite C-3PO's protests. After jumping into lightspeed, one of three scenarios occurs: *The Starspeeder almost crashes on Hoth amid a battle between Rebels and Imperial AT-ATs. After entering the combat zone against orders, an AT-AT fires at the StarSpeeder and the ship crashes into the snow, teetering on the edge of a cliff. The ship falls over the side and rides the canyon like a luge, launching off another cliff and free-falling into a deep canyon. Seemingly at the last second, R2-D2 re-engages the engines and the StarSpeeder rockets back into space. *The StarSpeeder reaches Tatooine and ends up taking part in the Boonta Eve Podrace, along with Sebulba. The StarSpeeder collides with a podracer and the two become stuck together. The race concludes with the podracer-enhanced StarSpeeder overtaking Sebulba, then jettisoning the podracer and flying back into space, almost hitting the crowd of spectators. *The StarSpeeder lands on Kashyyyk as Imperial jet speeders pursue Chewbacca and another Wookiee on a speeder bike through the lush forest. At one point, Chewbacca falls off from the back of the speeder bike and hits the StarSpeeder's windshield before sliding off, temporarily leaving paw prints behind. *The Starspeeder finds itself on Jakku, where it encounters the Millennium Falcon being chased by New Order Tie Fighters. Finn appears on screen, at the Falcon's Turrets, questioning what the Ship is doing there, but advises they sty low to confuse the Tie's Trackers and to use their shield. The ship then crashes in to the wreckage of a Star Destryer, where Savengers are able to rp some of the plating from the Ship, before head back to spce. Upon returning to space, a hologram transmission from either Admiral Ackbar, Leia Organa, Yoda or BB-8 confirms that there is a Rebel Spy on board and sends coordinates to R2-D2 on where to deliver the spy. Despite C-3PO's protests, R2-D2 takes the speeder to one of three other scenarios: *The StarSpeeder arrives in the upper atmosphere of a besieged Coruscant, where the last forces of the CIS battle the Army of the Republic's Clone troopers. Buzz droids are projected at the StarSpeeder, which attach themselves to the windshield, but R2 uses an electric shock to blast them off, after the buzz droids have caused severe damage to the stabilizers. The StarSpeeder then plummets through the planet's atmosphere and into the bustling sky traffic of the city planet. After several near misses, the StarSpeeder careens to a halt on a landing platform, nearly hitting a fuel tanker (a model seen in the original Star Tours) before crashing into a traffic control droid. *The StarSpeeder makes it to Naboo, which is under attack by the last Trade Federation armies. Three N-1 starfighters are ordered to lead the StarSpeeder into a hangar bay, but are shot down by vulture droids. Another vulture droid shoots down the StarSpeeder and it plummets into the ocean of the planet and arrives near Otoh Gunga, almost hitting Jar Jar Binks. After the Gungans order the StarSpeeder to follow a ship that will lead it through the planet's core, a giant carnivorous fish attacks the guide, but not before being eaten by a bigger sea creature. An even bigger sea creature then tries to eat the StarSpeeder, but R2-D2 blasts it with an electric shock. The StarSpeeder then surfaces, skipping off the water and into a repair hangar filled with Starfighter debris. (There is a short reference to the original Star Tours with C-3PO shouting "Brakes, brakes, where are the brakes?" just like RX-24) The StarSpeeder smashes into the tail of a Naboo starfighter, shattering the windshield and angering the pit droid that falls into the cockpit. **In Season Of The Force, a secondary version of Naboo is shown. In the second version, Jar-Jar does hit against the Windshield, and rather than the Tail shattering the Windshield, in the Hanger, it gently bounces on the screen, with an angry Pit Droid throwing a Bucket of Yellow Paint, on to the Wind Shield. *The StarSpeeder discovers the still unfinished Death Star orbiting Geonosis. Ambushed in the asteroid field by Boba Fett aboard the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_I Slave I], the StarSpeeder dodges laser fires and exploding asteroids before venturing into the Death Star. Escaping through a hangar bay, the StarSpeeder is confronted again by the bounty hunter. Fett launches a sonic bomb, which is deflected back by a laser blast from the StarSpeeder. The explosion cripples the bounty hunter, allowing the Starspeeder to jump to lightspeed. It reaches the Rebel fleet and lands aboard a Mon Calamari cruiser, where Mon Mothma and the other Rebel Alliance leaders await to offer congratulations. C-3PO thanks the guests for choosing Star Tours as their space-line of choice and are then given disembarking instructions by Aly San San. Post-ride After exiting the ride vehicle, the guests are shuffled through the space terminal and into the attraction's gift shop. The Florida version is called Tatooine Traders and is inspired by a desert outpost in Mos Espa. California's version is called Star Trader and is, much like the attraction itself, designed with Tomorrowland in mind. Cast * Anthony Daniels as C-3PO * Allison Janney as Aly San San * James Earl Jones as Darth Vader * Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca * Lindsay Schnebly as AC-38 * Tom Fitzgerald as G2-9T * Patrick Warburton as G2-4T * Tom Kane as Admiral Ackbar * Dee Bradley Baker as Boba Fett * Frank Oz as Yoda * Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa (unused archival footage with new audio) * Fred Tatasciore as Gungan Captain * Marianne McLean as Mon Mothma * Robin Atkin Downes as Security Guard * Paul Reubens as RX-24 (archival audio) Gallery Startours sm.jpg StarTours2poster-515x650.jpg Star-Tours-Logo.jpg Star-Tours-Exterior010.jpg 4289978205 2c10368899.jpg SMS Star Tours.jpg OtohGungaStarTours.png StarSpeeder10002011.jpg Star Tours Station.png|Star Tours Station 7014-star-tours-7024.jpg Trivia *Though the attraction is set in the Star Wars universe sometime shortly before Episode IV: A New Hope, the events of any of the ride's scenarios aren't officially considered canonical. External Links *[http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/star-tours/ Star Tours: The Adventures Continue attraction page on Disneyland.com] *[http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/hollywood-studios/attractions/star-tours/ Star Tours: The Adventures Continue attraction page on Disneyworld.com] *Star Tours: The Adventures Continue Review at TheForce.net *Queue area and onboard video from Disney at Youtube.com *Star Tours: The Adventures Continue at EndorExpress.net Category:Attractions based on films Category:Attractions in Disney's Hollywood Studios Category:Indoor attractions Category:Simulation attractions Category:Disney's Hollywood Studios Category:Walt Disney World Category:Star Wars attractions Category:Star Wars